Thai SEC seeks to standardize data submission by digital asset businesses and ICO portals

The Thai Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is seeking public comments on the proposed rules for data submission by digital asset business operators and initial coin offering (ICO) portals.

The Royal Decree on the Digital Asset Businesses went into effect on May 14, 2018, bringing digital asset offerings and businesses undertaking digital asset-related activities under the regulatory scope.

Earlier this year, the SEC granted digital asset business licenses to four cryptocurrency businesses. It now aims to promote a standardized protocol for monitoring and supervision of digital asset businesses, and to reduce the necessity for case-by-case data submission.

Noting that as different digital assets businesses deploy different data types and structures in their business operation, the SEC said that it is “proposing draft rules related to preparation and submission of data and information according to specific, standardized formats to facilitate ICO portals, digital asset dealers, brokers and exchanges in this matter while reducing their data submission on a case-by-case basis.”

The SEC said that a standardized database would benefit the supervision of digital asset businesses, promote cooperation between business operators and the SEC in optimizing the use of relevant data to create a clear picture of the overall digital asset industry, as well as contribute to the stability, transparency, fairness and digital asset market integrity.

On these lines, the regulator has published a consultation paper. The public hearing ends on 13 March 2019.

In February, the SEC updated the list of cryptocurrencies eligible for ICO investment or value comparison as base trading pair against other digital assets traded on digital asset exchanges. The updated list includes four cryptocurrencies for ICO investments and base trading pairs, namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ripple (XRP, and Stellar (XLM), while Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Ethereum Classic (ETC), and Litecoin (LTC) have been removed from the list.